Enemy of Mine
by DonAngel07
Summary: In an alternate Mass Effect universe, an ancient evil just as, if not older than the Reapers themselves slowly emerge from their slumber. Racing to the heart of a waking Tomb World defending itself from Reaper scouts, Commander Shepard aims to learn where this new chess piece stands in the galactic war.
1. Prelude - Where The Dead Walk

"After going through the pylon and into the depths of the unknown we find ourselves lost within the twisting ebon corridors. The only way now is forward, deeper into the breach of the mountain."

"That's a romantic way to say that we're lost, Dr. Uhe."

The professor grinned and signed off the recorder on his omni-tool, switching to an analysis program he had been running. "I knew it, 'no known provenance,' the architecture doesn't match with any xeno designs, ancient or modern. It's not even Prothean!"

"I think it's a little early to conclude that, Doctor. We should at least take our findings back to the lab and cross-reference with a larger database." said Dr. Sternin.

"Yes, yes, but doesn't it excite you? The thought that we could have stumbled upon the ruins of another advanced species from ages gone by? We might be looking at a people that grew alongside the Protheans!"

"The Alliance brass must have brought me onboard to be the pessimist to your optimism." Dr. Sternin said, chuckling to herself.

Slightly annoyed, Dr. Uhe shrugged off her remark and returned to the data being displayed on his omni-tool. He wasn't much for empathy himself and couldn't see that his colleague was more than a little distressed about being in the ruin, her brief humor intermission doing little to ease her nerves. The black halls seemed to stretch for miles and emanated a humming noise that was barely audible and pulsating; as if they were inside a living creature and they were moving closer to its heart

There were icons lined up along the walls that Dr. Sternin had been taking photographs of with her own omni-tool and sending them back to the lab computer. She made a note to herself that their shapes were not unlike Egyptian ankhs of ancient Earth, although that's where she concluded any comparisons. Unlike her companion, she didn't want to get giddy up over what could be, at least, a ludicrous hypothesis. Though she'd love to see the looks on the conspirators' faces were she to tell the world that ancient Egyptians were actually visited by an advanced alien race.

Although, given the times they were now living in and the discovery that Humanity was, indeed, not alone in the galaxy that theory could be viable for serious study.

"How far are we now from the origin of the energy spike, Dr. Sternin?" asked Uhe as he fumbled with his glasses a little over a datasheet.

"Approximate is…423.4 meters. We should contact the marines in a few minutes to move up the lab to our location and to bring more light sources than we originally-oh."

"What's wrong?"

"I kicked something," she said before shining her light by her feet.

"Check for an opening," Uhe was already prepping a seal on his omni-tool. The world they were on had no breathable gases and the ruins they currently stalked had above normal levels of radiation that got stronger as they ventured further in, likely caused by the source of the energy they were looking for.

"You're clear, doesn't look like you tore your suit open."

"Andrew, look at this."

Dr. Sternin's light shone on what appeared to be a large insect. The outer shell was a dark metal, much like the walls, with sharp looking mandibles and pointed legs. It was turned on its back and motionless. Both of their omni-tools were already scanning it.

"Just a husk," said Uhe, "Whatever this is it ran out of power ages ago."

"I can't get a read of this alloy, it's so strange. I think it's the same as whatever is all around us."

"Yea, those were my impressions. This could be a drone of some kind, perhaps maintenance. Its size would certainly help get it into hard to reach machinery, not much bigger than our holographic drones."

Uhe took a few photos of it before his colleague carefully picked it up off the floor, as though waiting for it to suddenly spring to life. She turned it around to see that the head had a few clear orbs that were likely its optic sensors, "It kind of looks like a giant scarab."

Andrew perked his head up from his omni-tool and nodded in agreement. His communicator was having trouble reaching back to the prefab outpost outside the mountain and all he could hear was static on his earpiece. Dr. Sternin in the meantime placed the specimen in a large hard case she had been carrying for a few miles for just this occasion, although, she had hoped to place several items of interest in it, and not one. Then a thought occurred to her.

"Dr. Uhe, initial scans for life were negative, correct?"

"Right," he replied, still trying to get a clean communication signal.

"And we believe that there is some sort of automated system still functional here, correct?"

"Right, what are you getting at, Rebecca?" his tone frustrated, more at his com-link than her inquiry.

"What if there is life here, just not as we think it?

"Can you reach anyone back at base? I can't get my com to work; damned thing was fine a minute ago. Are we talking about artificial life forms? Like the Geth?"

"Yes, if we could humor the idea for a moment, this world's condition isn't suitable for sustaining life. Maybe it never was, we've no idea if whoever left this structure behind had a hand in its desolation."

The professor allowed his eyes to wander about the corridor realizing that he'd never seen Geth architecture, though the idea offended him a little that machines could develop anything resembling a culture. However, even he had to admit that the simple design of these corridors could have been the work of a machine, but it didn't explain the iconography. It would be a long shot but he'd have to ask Admiral Hackett about any data concerning the Quarian automatons, what little they had.

"Nobody is picking up my calls, but I can still reach my computer. Hold on, I'll turn on the webcam and we can see what's going on."

A vid screen materialized out of Dr. Sternin's omni-tool and displayed her desk, cluttered with data-pads and carrying cases. She motioned the camera, what little it could, to one side of the room to the next. There were no signs of any of the other scientists, or Alliance marines.

"Do you think they went ahead and followed us in with the equipment?"

They were supposed to contact the base once they were within spitting distance of the energy source. Dr. Uhe and all his brilliance assured the marines that an escort wasn't necessary and that they'd only get in the way. Thus far, he had proved himself right by not encountering any major obstacles other than the dizzying effect of seeing the same black wall at every turn.

She didn't know why, but a slow creeping sense of dread began to loom over Dr. Sternin as she studied the empty lab and Dr. Uhe stared blankly over her shoulder without saying a word. Where was everyone?

"Rebecca, move the camera back towards the door, bottom right." There was a slight quiver in his voice.

"What is it, I don'-oh my god!"

"Is that an arm?"

After focusing on the spot, they could see someone's forearm stretched out behind the doorway with the body presumably behind the wall. Thick stains of blood could be seen on the floor around it and the armor around the limb pinched so hard it punctured right into the bone. Dr. Uhe frantically got back on his own omni-tool and tried to contact the base again.

"Hello? Hello! Is anyone receiving? Come in, Command Post Alpha, please respond!"

Only static would heed his calls and a frightened Rebecca shone her light at every corner she could. The hum behind the walls seemingly grew louder and pulsated with her racing heart as she chased away shadows.

"Come on, there has to be someone! Check your computer cam again, maybe someone is there."

A slight tremor was felt, making the scientists stumble on themselves. The walls around them suddenly began to shift and change whilst the runes glowed an eerie green. Dr. Uhe quickly gained his balance as he pushed Dr. Sternin out of the way of a falling ceiling section. The corridor continued to swallow in on itself as if it wanted to crush the intruders, forcing the scientists to run toward their original destination.

They were coming up to a dead end with no other way in sight, their eyes darting in every direction for an exit. Without any attempt to slow down they crashed against the wall and watched with terror as the ceiling continued to crash toward them like a wave. Accepting that there was no way out they collapsed to the floor and watched in anguish as they were about to be crushed. So many thoughts ran through Uhe's mind, trying to seek the logic of what was going on here, trying to find what he had missed. How could this nightmare have occurred in mere seconds from completely nothing?

Just as he accepted his final moments were going to be shaking in fear of the pain to come, the ceiling stopped falling a few meters away. The silence before taking his first calm breath seemed like an eternity. He couldn't believe it. Uhe turned toward Sternin, their eyes watery, and in a moment of insanity laughed at their fortune.

Then the scarabs fell upon them.

* * *

Though I'm not a stranger to writing, this is my first contribution to this website. This crossover has been gnawing at me for ages and it feels great to get the prelude out. I'm open to criticism and hope that you all enjoy the next chapter.


	2. Shadows in The Desert

"Commander, Admiral Hackett for you on the vid-com."

"Thank you, Traynor, I'm on my way."

Shepard splashed his face with water before leaving his cabin, having just got up from two hours sleep. It was only days after his crew took shore leave on the Citadel, and looking back at it now it was probably the longest vacation he ever took in a while. The Normandy barely had a chance to cool her engines since as her crew dragged themselves around the galaxy gathering resources for the liberation of Earth, and hopefully, all life as they know it. Not much different from before the R&R really, Shepard humored to himself there were no days off to begin with thanks to the clone nonsense.

"Commander," Admiral Hackett was in no better health. Were the vid any clearer, Shepard would see bags under the Admiral's eyes and years added to his features since their home world was taken by the Reapers.

"Admiral?" Shepard picked up a tension in Hackett's voice that he was all too familiar with and knew this conversation was going to lead into something he wouldn't like.

"What do you know about the Ward Expanse?"

The Commander held a quizzical look for a second before reaching the back of his mind, "Only that it's somewhere in the Nemean Abyss and has a reputation behind it; sort of like our Bermuda Triangle. Ships that happen to cross any of its systems get lost and are never heard from again, or so they say at least."

"They're right, Commander. Most believe that the area is a major hunting ground for raiders due to all the disappearances, but one of our scientists had another notion entirely. Five years ago, Dr. Uhe hypothesized that the Ward Expanse was littered with artificial gravity wells that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. He discovered the locations where vessels were last seen didn't match with black hole behavior and theorized that a very powerful technology was at work. Not to mention, pirates stayed away from most of those systems. Dr. Uhe was a colleague of the late Dr. Bryson."

Shepard still got headaches remembering his meeting with the Leviathan, the ancient race of massive hyper intelligent creatures who were responsible for the current Reaper threat. More than that, he remembered his brief meeting with Dr. Bryson and how his assistant took his life only minutes after shaking hands.

"Does this have something to do with the Reapers?"

"We never learned a thing from this venture, Dr. Uhe and his team went MIA after landing on a world he believed had evidence for his claim. He had Alliance brass think he might have stumbled upon some advanced technology left by the Protheans. Search parties were sent to their last known location, but couldn't find anything, not even the bodies. We only managed to recover the lab."

He couldn't see what any of this had to do with the current situation, and had Shepard slept one less hour he might have interjected with Hackett to get to the point. Without realizing it, he was leaning slightly against a wall and feeling the need to splash his burning eyes with water again.

"Are you getting enough sleep, Shepard," the Admiral suddenly asked. The Commander's somewhat lazy stance was evident enough through the hologram along with a vacant stare.

"I'm fit for duty, Admiral, whatever it is you need."

"I need you at your best, Commander. We all do, because I'm sending you to Cassern, where Dr. Uhe and his team were last seen. So get your eight hours and your team ready."

"Ready for what, Admiral?"

A report was already being sent to the war room terminal detailing all the mission specifics. Shepard was viewing the brief on his omni-tool and scrolled down to a picture that brought him back to attention.

"To find what on that world killed a Reaper."

* * *

The marauder and his cannibals were buffeted by sandy winds as they scaled a red mountain that would give them full view of the horizon. The Batarian mutants growled and clicked at each other when one bumped into another while climbing the sharp surface, their bulgy backs cushioning the stumbles. One of them thought it noticed a shadow along the cliff face and stopped in place to examine the dark parts. When it was being left behind, the marauder ordered it back into formation.

Their Reaper was still burning up in orbit after a crack of emerald lightning shot out of the world and hit it square on the face, tearing through its kinetic barrier as if it weren't even there. Two more such attacks followed and tore the capital ship apart, cutting limbs and piercing the main body. Though the Reaper infantry had long lost their organic emotions, watching the sapient vessel be destroyed like that from their drop ship revived a trickling sense of fear not felt since their ascension.

It didn't matter, more would come and the offenders of this world would be harvested like all the rest.

Red earth seemed to stretch as far as the marauder's machine sight could see. Clouds of sand brushed the landscape with a duller red to form a veil that blocked the view of a large crescent shape hidden in the background. The shadow of it would have intimidated any other mortal soul as its scope in size measured that of a rising sun, coming out of the ground from the far horizon. The marauder could make out a crystal shaped object protruding from the center of it, aimed toward the sky. He would give the newly arriving Reaper forces the location of this defense network and join a ground force to decommission it so the assimilation of this planet can begin in full.

Suddenly, a cry in the back ranks sounded and the marauder turned to witness a cannibal falling to the ground from an apparent back wound, yet no external injury could be seen. The cannibals nearest their commander began pointing their guns in all directions trying to find an attacker whilst two wasted no time launching themselves at their fallen comrade. A ribbon of red energy coiled around the marauder's arm before it lashed at several cannibals, raising them in the air as armor formed around their bodies.

Just then, the marauder stopped empowering his allies and trembled. There was the shock of having its internal systems suddenly being ripped apart by a blade and in the next moment it was gone. It coughed up a blue liquid before falling to its knees and clutched its abdomen as if the Reaper sergeant expected to catch its internal organs.

The cannibals turned to face what looked like a giant cobra rising above their fallen marauder, with its dark, metallic body wide and balancing on a coiling tail. It had a large virulent eye in the middle of its head staring down the Reaper unit with two bladed arms poised to attack. Without wasting a second more the cannibals opened fire.

Blasts of red shot straight through the creature as if it weren't there, a wraith in the desert. It was content to simply stand there and let the mutated infantry waste ammunition. Then out of the ground two more appeared, their bodies phasing through the rock and blades slashing into the cannibals. Even with their armor it mattered not to the automatons, their blades somehow found themselves cutting the cannibals' internal organs without so much as scratching the chitin that protected them.

The creatures danced in and out of reality as the Reapers continuously missed their mark, and one by one they fell to phantom blades. The battle didn't even last a minute.

When the last cannibal fell, the marauder, hanging on to flickering function, looked on as the automatons suddenly vanished within a green energy field, their work done. An ear splitting crack, like thunder, sounded in the distance and the Reaper looked to the sky to see shining balls of light flicker in and out of reality.

Was it another Reaper vessel, or simply a foolish mortal investigating the planet and the strong energy readings that emanated from deep within the surface? It mattered not in the end; the marauder failed to perform its mission and laid itself on ground facing the red sky above. An odd thing occurred before its vision went black; a dormant memory suddenly flashed a different sky above, a silver ceiling perforated by smoke and fire burning from ruined fortifications. It saw Turians dragging it back to a defense line before a Destroyer-Class Reaper plummeted on their location and rained destruction upon their heads. A hand rested on its chest before the light died out.

* * *

"If we weren't in the Normandy, you'd really be loco for wanting to head into the Abyss. I'd rather take on Sovereign than take a job there any day."

The Commander looked to Vega, slightly amused at his Lieutenant's remark about the mission location, "Really, James?"

"You wouldn't be saying that if you were there, we were within spitting distance of its main gun. Well, not that I could have-you know what I mean," Talli gestured with her hand.

Though the Alliance rarely ventured into Terminus space to begin with, the Nemean Abyss was especially avoided. Its reputation as the darkest part of the galaxy, in more ways than one, preceded it among the council races. Only a few human colonies exist within it, those desperate enough to avoid the rule of the Alliance Government.

"It is strange that the Reapers would want anything to do with any system in the Nemean Abyss, its population is mostly criminals and they're not exactly contributing to the war effort," said Liara.

Dr. T'soni was looking over the mission dossier displayed on the war room terminal and going over all the data Admiral Hackett sent about the Uhe expedition. "Do you think the Reapers found something on Cassern?

"If they did, I bet that one wasn't expecting a hole in the head. I'd go just to shake the hand of whoever pulled the trigger," Garrus chuckled.

Liara put up photos recovered from the Uhe expedition up on the holo-screen, and displayed the iconography found all along the ebony walls.

"I've never seen anything like these, not even during my Prothean studies. Were the mission not a failure, I would have liked to have been with Dr. Uhe during the venture. We might have confirmed his hypothesis that we were looking at an entirely different, advanced species apart from the Protheans."

The Alliance search parties only found the prefab lab that was set up just at the base of a red mountain, but there were no signs of the structure Dr. Uhe and his colleague, Dr. Sternin, had ventured in. Not wanting to risk an incident with the Terminus Systems, the Alliance quickly ended the investigation after collecting all research materials from the site.

"Wasn't there something about gravity wells? How are we supposed to navigate around those," Ashley asked, arms crossed.

"Oh, yes, that should be here somewhere," Talli took control of the dossier and flipped over to a data sheet compiled by Dr. Uhe. "You learn a thing or two about stars baking under one for a few days. See?"

She pointed toward a system map with circles and lines drawn straight through them, "By marking the location of all known ship disappearances, and measuring the distance from the star, Dr. Uhe was able to learn that these gravity wells were travelling on an orbit."

Shepard raised his brow, "But that's impossible, you telling me satellites are responsible for these incidents?"

"Yes, at least, that's what Uhe concluded. They must be massive in scope to be able to have a planetary orbit."

"And since they travelled around the star, you could never mark their locations unless you knew about the pattern. It's a shifting mine field," Liara concluded.

"So now all we have to do is apply the current date to the data and, voila!"

On a separate map, new locations for all the gravity wells were marked within the Ward Expanse and safe route was plotted toward the world of Cassern.


	3. Death Awakens

Somewhere beneath the sands of Cassern, a long dormant tomb was slowly waking. Tendrils of eldritch energy skipped and danced along the massive generators powering up core systems within the complex. Tiny metallic scarabs scaled walls and ventured into critical areas of machinery to repair damage. They were accompanied by the wraiths that phased through engines and tombs to see whom among their warriors survived the ravages of time, the one true foe of their people. For what can destroy an immortal creature that long forsook his flesh other than the force that relinquishes the stars themselves.

Indeed, the Necrontyr were once a people shackled by the cruel fate of mortality. Forced to live their short lives under the constant bash of radiation from their star, the Necrontyr pushed the very boundary of science beyond the ceiling of understanding in order to learn the secrets of immortality. To learn their technology is to forgo the notion of logic itself, for when one believes they've mastered a science their hubris inhibits the ability to truly see beyond the veil of the material universe; to see into the realm of gods. There is where true knowledge lies and how the Necrontyr came to learn the secret of life unending.

However, their new immortality was granted at a cost. For when one looks into the realm of gods, the gods look back with wide grins. The Necrontyr had discovered the existence of massive entities that fed on the energy of stars, the C'tan. These beings, nothing more than constructs of gases and energy with an incomprehensible consciousness, spread themselves wide over the surfaces of stars and fed on the solar radiation until their host bled dry. They cared not for the petty matters of mortals and only wanted to feed their voracious appetites by seeking star after star.

It was the C'tan that would eventually give the Necrontyr the knowledge of immortality. The Necrons gave their new deities robot bodies of necrodermis, a construct of living-metal, and allowed the C'tan to experience the material realm anew and learn of new pleasures, such as feeding on the life energy of mortals. The Star Gods then bestowed the knowledge of bio-transference, the process of taking a consciousness from a living soul and putting it into a body of necrodermis much like how the Necrons had done for them. Great bio furnaces were built and the great ascension had begun. As citizen after citizen became encased in a body of living-metal, their souls were drained by the C'tan and their powers flourished. The Empire of The Ever-Living had been born, a nation of soulless machines that were now bound to their deities' every whim.

The Necron Empire scoured the galaxy to feed their C'tan, whose hunger for life was insatiable. With their logic-defying weapons and the C'tan's reality bending powers, the Necrons made the galaxy bend to its knees; soul after soul, world after world, all were burned in eldritch fire.

However, if one doesn't replant the seeds, how will the farmer reap his crop come the next Spring? For this reason the Necron Empire let live some species ('cept those blue fuckers) and chose to lay in dormancy for millions of years. Then, when the galaxy brimmed with life, they would rise again to lay their cold hand over her shoulder.

Albeit, they did not expect such a rude awakening.

The restoration to full functionality was taking longer than expected since the intruders didn't relent on their world and non critical power was being routed to the defense networks out on the sands. Only a few scores of their warriors were awake and standing by for phase-out orders with many more still awaiting resurrection protocols. The wraiths and scarabs out on patrols had performed to the task when the enemy only managed to land recon units, but now their attacks became more frequent and aggressive. There was nothing worth obtaining on the rock other than the wondrous technology buried hundreds of feet below the surface so it was all too evident what was their goal.

A skeletal figure dressed in ornate robes and wielding a staff stood over a console that monitored the enemy presence up in orbit. Several vessels were standing by just out of reach of the pylon's range and resorted to dropping troops directly onto the surface. Units that scattered too far from each other were picked off by the scarabs and wraiths. Those that survived their wrath were gathering for what appeared to be an assault on the pylons, were it only so easy. However, if the enemy had the resources to spare they could eventually exhaust those of a still waking tomb world. The nobility were still in their slumber and wouldn't be stirred until the situation became truly dire and protocols had to be broken.

The Cryptek rubbed his metal chin just as he noticed a newcomer on the monitor coming out of hyperspace and approaching fast. At a glance it appeared much more maneuverable than those ships that had been attacking earlier and could pose a potential threat. Oddly enough it seemed to be braving the airspace as if given no warning about the pylons. The Necron mechromancer took it as a challenge.

An emerald light flashed behind the Cryptek, but he continued to monitor the situation on his screen. A communication started in his machine mind.

"All is going accordingly, gentlemen, despite the slow start. We can begin warrior patrols momentarily to assess just what we're dealing with."

"We know you've already done your own reconnaissance, Treckis."  
The Cryptek stopped for half a second before continuing to look over the resurrection of the warriors, "Right, I'd forgotten the Praetorians didn't enter the tombs with the rest of us, lovely of you to have remembered my name then! All the same, I'm sure our lord would like to know to what the situation is. Still, can't fault my curiosity, it's an entirely new world after all."

While many of the lesser subjects gave up their individuality when they donned their new bodies, the nobility and those of a higher standing within the Necron Empire were able to keep their personality intact, for the most part. To keep one's mind without the ability to feel eventually took its toll on many Necrons and drove them to the point of insanity. A few, perhaps unfortunately, fared better than others.

The Praetorians, judges and enforcers of the Necrons, stood silent as the Cryptek fiddled with his machine. Their bodies were tall, made with the finest necrodermis, and in their hands were rods that acted as symbols of their office, but were also potent weapons that would dissolve even a Necron to liquid form.

"Send all relevant data to his stasis-chamber, immediately," they ordered.

"Oh, were it only that I had not gone into stasis then I'd have missed you all terribly. With all this incredible work that I'm doing I've not had the slightest moment to check up on new specimens. Like this one!"

Treckis turned around to greet one of his wraiths that was approaching him out of a phase-in. The automaton was carrying a motionless Reaper marauder in one of its arms before dropping it carelessly to the ground beneath their Cryptek. The wraith then brought the poor creature out of stasis with a pistol it had been wielding.

Momentarily confused, the Reaper gathered its bearings to find it was in the presence of the new enemy and promptly tried to strangle Treckis.

"Oh, fascinating," the Cryptek said before stretching out his arm to grab the marauder by the neck and hold it up for him to see better. Like many of the Necrontry, Treckis was three meters in height and had the grip of a terminator.

The Reaper struggled helplessly as the mechromancer studied his features, "What a crude melding of flesh and machine, but I admire the effort. Perhaps another race tried to follow in our footsteps, hmm?"

"Can you conclude a threat level by this specimen?" asked the lead Praetorian.

"Well let's see here."

Treckis tossed the marauder away from him. As the Reaper scrambled to get on its feet, the Cryptek pointed his staff at it. A brilliant flash of light emitted from the tip and swallowed the marauder whole, leaving not a trace only a second after.

"Minimal at best."

* * *

"We're about to reach Cassern, Shepard."

"Keep her steady, Joker, and remember to expect Reaper forces once we're out of the jump."

The Normandy pilot scoffed, "Oh, well, this really is the abyss now, huh? You could have told me that after the giant invisible gravity wells."

"I sent you the details after the meeting in the war room."

"Oh come on, Shepard, you know I never read those things. Usually I let _EDI _tell me the really important stuff."

The inflection when he said her name didn't fall flat on the synthetic sitting in the co-pilot's seat, "I'm sorry, Jeff, I presumed you were among the 71% of human males that didn't like receiving direction from their female partners when 'behind the wheel.'"

"Well yea but this is Reapers we're talking about. There's exceptions to every rule, and that's the universal one."

"Ah, well in that case you'll be glad to know that I did send Shepard's report to your console, it's the blinking green light to your left."

Shepard and Joker both looked at the exact same spot to find the unopened message blinking for attention, "And so it is! Thank you, EDI."

"You're welcome."

Shepard shook his head as he got on his com-link, "Cortez, how's the shuttle?"

"Ready to go, Commander, your team can come to the launch bay whenever you're ready."

"Alright, EDI you're with me on this one."

"Yes, Commander."

"Liara, get your suit on," Shepard commanded into his com, "I'll need your expertise if we happen to find the ruins while we're investigating the Reaper presence on Cassern."

"Of course, Shepard," she responded.

"What do you need EDI for then," Joker asked.

"She doesn't have to breathe."

"Aren't you lucky?" the synthetic said as she walked past her pilot.

As they made their way to the elevator Shepard had to ask, "EDI, please tell me that was a-"

"Joke? Maybe."

He wished he hadn't.

Cortez had taken the liberty of laying out the team's favored weapons and armor before making final checks on the shuttle; the tempest SMG for Liara, N7 Hurricane for EDI and the trusty avenger assault rifle for Shepard with a phalanx heavy pistol as side arms for all three. Rebreather helmets for Liara and Shepard were set next to heavy armor to combat the harsh desert conditions present on Cassern.

"Shepard, we just arrived, multiple Reaper signatures are present on and off Cassern." EDI said as they exited the elevator.

"Can you classify them, EDI?"

"Ten Sovereign-class ships are currently on orbit along with fifteen Destroyer-class Reapers."

"That's quite a few for a supposed dead world…" Liara pointed out ominously.

"Thirteen Destroyer-class vessels now," EDI corrected.

"What?"

The intercom clicked to life and Joker spoke excitedly through it, "Shepard, I, you're not gonna believe this. Two Reapers that broke away from the group and made a b-line for the planet just got smashed! Something on Cassern just wrecked them, it was like green lightning or something."

"Brace for evasive maneuvers!" EDI shouted now over the intercom. Without any more warning from the Normandy's A.I., the ship suddenly rocked and barreled out of the way, tossing those in the shuttle bay around.

"EDI, what's going on?" Shepard shouted as he tried to grab hold of something.

"We're being fired upon, Commander."

"Why isn't our stealth system online?!"

"It is."

Emerald lightning shot forth from the world of Cassern and tried to lap away at the Normandy's hull. EDI had taken direct control of the ship momentarily before handing it back to Joker, feeding him warning and trajectory data on the missiles attempting to shoot them down. The pilot moved his arms frantically about the console as flashes of green would emit on his monitor for every near miss. He never had to dodge literal lightning before.

"Joker, can you get us to the surface or do we have to bail out?" Shepard called out.

"Not while you're talking to me!"

"Shepard, this attack has made the Reapers aware of our presence. The Normandy can't stay in space while we investigate Cassern." EDI said.

"Alright, the ship comes too. We'll figure out an exit strategy once we land."

The Normandy shook violently as it took a glancing hit from the Necron pylon. Joker gritted his teeth and made a muttered promise that it wouldn't get another hit on his baby. With renewed focus, the Normandy sped down to the surface of the desert world, limping out of the way of any more attacks as Joker compensated. Once they were in full view of the desert, the attacks stopped coming and Jeff dropped his shoulders.

Spotting a large outcrop in the middle of the red sands, the Normandy decided to make its berth under the shade of the rock in order to shield itself from the desert winds.

"Status?" Shepard called out once he was sure he could breathe.

"We've taken some damage to the outer hull, but we should be able to make repairs. The Reapers broke pursuit once we entered the upper atmosphere." EDI responded.

The rest of the crewmen collected themselves and gathered those that took injuries from the evasive maneuvers. Cortez popped his head out of the shuttle and gave the signal that he was still ready to go, though he looked just as weary from the excitement as everyone else.

"Alright, open the bay door, we're heading out."

Shepard and team made their way to the shuttle as the door slowly brought itself down. Just as he was about to get onboard, the Commander looked out to see that something had been waiting.

They were fifteen, all lined up neatly in rows of five, just standing there lifeless. With heads down and knees slightly bent the dark, metal, skeletal figures just stood at rest holding alien rifles Shepard had never seen before; the barrel of the gun was transparent like glass so that you could see a flickering emerald energy skipping around it and a heavy bayonet attached below.

Then, without warning, they suddenly sprang to life and brought their guns to bear with a sinister green in their eyes. Shepard barely had time to tell everyone to take cover before they started firing. As wave after wave of guass fire licked away at whatever it touched in the shuttle bay, Shepard remembered a conversation he had earlier with Garrus where he jokingly suggested this mission could be worse than Ilos.

He wished at this moment that the Turian had been very wrong.

* * *

Author's note:

Thank you all for taking an interest in my crossover and I hope you're having as much fun as I. To answer the general question of which Necron lore I'm using, I'm going to admit that I'm trying to do a mix of both.

It seemed like a really good idea at first but after going through both codices it was actually more difficult to do than I realized. However, I'm going to go ahead with the course anyway and hope for the best.

On the subject of lore I also figured that more Mass Effect fans than Warhammer fans would be reading this crossover in the long run if this sort of story catches their eye. So with that in mind I made this chapter more introductory to the Necrons with a general background to their history whilst hinting what I was going for with the W40K fanbase.

Speaking of W40K, to answer another question, this is taking place in the Mass Effect universe. It just so happens that Necrons are in it. So there's no Void Dragon trapped in Mars since there's no emperor to have put him there in the first place and other things of that nature. Could the influence of other familiar races have or are taking place? Maybe, you'll just have to continue reading and find out.

Thank you again for your time!


	4. Science Over Magic

There was a time in Humanity's history where they would have never conceived experiencing the technology they now possessed. With the advent of the mass effect many possibilities have opened up in technology to the point where a man in the early 20th century might have considered it sorcery. The notion of biotics would have no doubt fueled that idea further with humans being able to manipulate mass with their minds and tear foes asunder with a passing thought.

Though magic is an element in story books now and nothing more, in the age before the Great Sleep, sorcery was quite real for the Necrons.

During their first harvest, the Necrontyr encountered many species who dabbled in the arcane arts and manipulated forces with their minds; torrents of bellowing fire, terrible hurricanes, and quaking earth. These unforeseen energies were the greatest impediment to the Necron's advance across the galaxy and garnered the most attention from the C'tan.

Realizing they could never win alone these various races formed an alliance and for once since the C'tan first laid their hand on the first world they consumed the tide had turned. The logic defying weapons of the Necrons clashed with the will manipulating forces of the organic races, tearing worlds asunder on a cataclysmic scale that's too awesome for one man to dictate with the English language.

The C'tan, though powerful, did not want to risk their new empire to the upstart psychic races and began a plan to dampen their power through a network of grand pylons. These constructs were to interfere with the brain patterns that activated the abilities of the adepts, thus rendering them completely helpless.

Before the web could be completed, however, an unexpected foe had risen up against the C'tan and the plan couldn't be executed, leaving the network largely unfinished.

So it was that pockets of unrestrained psychic potential could be developed around the galaxy; abilities that allowed an organic being to manipulate the forces around them to great effect. At first these supposed psychics were disregarded by the rest of civilized space, counting it as nothing more than illusions and showmanship, but with each new race's discovery of biotic potential within their respective communities one wonders if there is perhaps not more that the mortal mind can achieve.

* * *

"The Reapers couldn't kill me and neither will you, synthetic!"

Glass from the engineering deck shattered as it felt the force of Javik's biotics. The Prothean warrior flowed with malice and let loose a bolt of power from his arm that followed after the shards. It hit squarely into the front rank of the Necron warriors and tossed one of the metal ancients aside, disrupting the attack momentarily.

"Liara, singularity, now!"

"You don't have to tell me, Shepard!"

The Asari broke from her cover behind the shuttle and focused her power on a single point in the middle of the squad. The black vortex materialized, and expanded, throwing the Necrons off their balances as they resisted.

A few of the engineers and hangar crew had grabbed Avenger assault rifles before breaking cover to take advantage of the Necrons' brief reprieve from attack. They rained fire down the aisle, peppering the warriors with shots they couldn't see were bouncing off the necrodermis. Shepard joined them, pouring into the front ranks along with EDI, and took notice of their armor. His omni-tool prepped an incinerating charge and let it crash into the crowd. The projectile splashed all over the synthetics and the Commander shouted a focus fire order on those that were aflame.

The machines struggled to get free from the pull of the singularity, but it had not lifted them up helplessly. Liara took a second to be impressed at their endurance, where only larger constructs could resist entirely the embrace of her biotic power. Not even Geth troopers could do what they were doing right now.

Not waiting a moment more for her singularity to break, Liara ignited it with a biotic warp. The explosion threw the entire squadron down to the ground as warriors crashed into one another from the center going out. Their green eyes went dim.

There was a pause of silence as the crew were assessing what in the hell had just happened before Joker chimed into Shepard's communicator.

"Commander, the hell is going on down there? I got warning lights and red covering the lower decks."

"We were attacked, Joker, by whoever runs this world."

"Whoa, is everyone alright?"

"We're fine, can't say the same about the hangar."

The shuttle and the hangar were damaged beyond recognition; to say it looked like a hunk of Swiss cheese wouldn't be far from the truth. The place was perforated by unfamiliar impact points. Shepard rubbed two fingers against one such area on the shuttle and noticed there were no signs of a projectile. A piece of the shuttle was just stripped away as if a hand merely took a bit of it and ran.

"What now, Shepard? This isn't something that can be fixed in a day," Liara stated.

"We'll have to come up with a new plan, but first, where did they come from?"

"Oh, you're right, that nearly slipped my mind."

"EDI, how far are we from the-"

"Commander," one of the crewmates shouted as he pointed toward the warriors.

The squad turned around to witness their supposed dead foe rising back on their feet. Green energies seeped out of their joints and eyes as they self-repaired; one by one they all got up and seemed to not take mind to the damage they had sustained. In fact, there was no damage to speak of. Their armor shifted, repositioned itself, and healed the worst wounds as if it were an organism.

"That is impossible," said EDI.

The Commander and crew didn't give that statement enough time to be appreciated before ducking once more for cover as the emerald blasts showered them once more.

"I need a head count! Everyone not in the hangar I need you ASAP, we're under attack!"

Multiple voices responded at once over the sound of gauss pulling and vaporizing the diminishing cover around them.

"Talli and I are in the war room, Shepard, we're on the way."

"Garrus, grab the widow maker and position yourself on the engineering deck. Talli, join Garrus with the plasma shotgun. James, where the hell are you?"

"Right here, Shep."

James appeared right next to his Commander, fully armored and loaded for action.

"Was just getting suit up."

Shepard rolled his eyes and got on the com once more, "Javik, can you disrupt them again like last time?"

He looked up toward Javik's room and saw that the warriors were focusing more on his position than theirs, clearly having learned from before.

"They seem to consider me a threat now, Commander, as they should!"

"I got his back, Shepard," called down Ashley up on engineering. She was attempting to lay on suppressing fire down on the warriors, but this proved difficult to do to the oncoming machines as the bullets were but mosquitoes trying to bite the hide of a rhino.

The third deck was getting shredded and Javik's cover was quickly reduced to almost nothing, forcing the Prothean to shift every other second. Shepard made a series of short inputs on his omni-tool and a holographic drone materialized before hovering high above them. The orange orb managed to let fly a missile before being destroyed by a single gauss blast. The projectile hit square into the peak of the advancing warrior force, making them stumble back a bit and buying the Commander time to change positions.

EDI used this second to attempt a hack on one of the undying machines. With thousands of tries achieved in that moment of time the advanced AI found that this was impossible to do and realized that these were not like the machines they knew, but an entirely new life form built with technology she couldn't understand.

"Fire in the hole," James called out before lobbing a grenade over the crate he was behind. The pineapple hit one of the warriors in the head before it exploded, knocking out that one machine back to the ground and pushing back the others a bit. With the soldier being so close to the advancing force, the warriors focused on his position.

Two of the crewmen broke from cover and tried to take down the lead Necron closest to James with their assault rifles. The bullets continued to bounce off their bodies and a few of the warriors in the rear directed their fire toward the foolish would-be heroes. The gauss flayer hit the shoulder of one of the men, stripping it clean off as it pulled him away from cover. The crew member didn't have time to scream in pain before more streams of emerald flayed off the rest of his body to nothingness. The other man, now stunned with fear, dropped his gun and collapsed behind the crates as he witnessed his comrade being vaporized right before his eyes.

A few of Shepard's crew witnessed what happened and were just as fearful. Ashley whispered a prayer to herself and Liara the same.

"James, get out of there," the Commander shouted.

Before James could respond that he'd be fine, the crate his back was against instantly vaporized out of existence and he stumbled backwards. He looked up to see the tall metal creatures, standing over him, and the ends of their barrels. Shepard sent out an electric pulse followed by assault rifle fire, trying to direct their attention, but it failed to deter them.

Lt. Vega stared deep into those sinister green eyes and saw no life behind them. The world around him began to stop and he could hear his own heartbeat slow down in anticipation for what was about to happen next. In all the things that he had done on this mission with Shepard, he had begun to feel invincible, like not even the Reapers could stop them from accomplishing what everyone else thought was impossible. Now, here on a previously unknown world to the rest of the galaxy, he was going to die to a faceless enemy.

* * *

Author's Note:

Meanwhile on the tabletop...

"Tek, how the hell did you live that?"

"What?"

"I literally just fired a big assed beam of antimatter right at your guys, Imperial Guardsmen I add, and all they had to do was duck behind cover...and they're alright?"

"2+ saves man, it's awesome."

"This gun has literally busted open adamantium gates and it can't bypass a fricken rockrete wall with a gun emplacement? Can't I destroy it or something?"

"Newp, just the quad-gun."

"I can't believe I didn't even get one, not a single one, the pie plate was over half of that blob and you made all the saves."

*tongue click*

This is the conversation that followed after my first encounter with an aegis defense line and testing it with my Doomsday Ark. The guardsmen, like the groundhogs they are, were able to perform an effective defense by simply ducking behind the wall and getting back up during their turn when their general issued the order. Ever since then I've had a hateful relationship with aegis defense lines and concrete walls altogether.


	5. Perfection Manifest

Over the many millennia that the Necrons laid dormant, a few hundred, if not thousand tomb worlds had been lost completely to the ravages of time; stasis failures, platonic shifts, exploding stars. These incidents, though foreseen, would ultimately test the new technology and prove the better to those tomb worlds less prepared than the rest. So it was with no surprise that the best sarcophagi and crypts would be prepared for the C'tan when it came time for them to enter the great sleep.

However, no matter how much you achieve to prevent its outcome, fate always seems to find a way.

The sarcophagus of Aza'Gorod, The Nightbringer, was destroyed during a cataclysmic earthquake that wracked the crypt to its very foundation and buried it whole. This unforeseen rising left Aza'Gorod in a terribly weakened state and even he had difficulty reaching the planet's surface. Once all had calmed, the C'tan found himself alone and without his legions awaiting him. Realizing that it was not yet time for the awakening, the god settled on an old delicacy to restore his power far away from the prying eyes of the new species that surrounded him.

So it was for a few centuries that the C'tan watched with voracious eyes all the new, young, mortals that spread across the galaxy. With each ship that passed him by, his blade would quiver with the thought of slicing through flesh once more, to spread the terror he lavished, but death is nothing if not patient. The Nightbringer would wait for his own armies to awaken from their slumber before taking the galaxy by the throat and satiating the slowing pulse of her heart. Until then, he was satisfied peering into the souls of mortals and rekindling their fear of him.

Tali saw the old god once though she never admitted it to anyone, especially to herself. For weeks the Quarian engineer had nightmares from seeing what at first she thought was a mirage or illusion. When she took her first steps on Haestrom, as if possessed Tali looked up at Dholen and saw his shadow; a terrible figure cloaked in black and wielding a scythe with eyes like coals and a touch so cold. It were as if she stood right next to him on that glowing red sun, close enough to see him grin.

When she snapped out of the dream like state she could see no such thing on Dholen. However, watching the surface of Haestrom burn in the light of the sun couldn't purge the intense chill that ran through her body. Tali never shared the experience with her squad or even Shepard, to show such vulnerability over something trivial as a dream would make her out to be childish. Even now she refuses to speak on it, for every so often she'll catch a glimpse of those eyes staring back at her through time and space, counting down the hour to her demise.

* * *

A blast of plasma suddenly materialized on the face of the warrior pointing its weapon at James. The Necron reared back and was pummeled with a penetrating sniper round at the top of its skull, knocking it to the ground. The rest of the squadron looked up to the third deck to catch the Quarian and Turian duo picking out targets nearest their comrade.

Taking advantage of the distraction, EDI jumped straight into the front of the pack and began pummeling them away with her android strength. Though the warriors resisted falling over the full force of her strikes, they could not help but stumble as they tried to hammer at her with their bayonets with EDI's body being faster and surprisingly agile for a machine. Let it never be said that Cerberus technology lacked grace. The android twisted around the tall warriors and struck at their joints to put them off balance before rolling away to avoid their blades.

"They appear to be slow in close combat, Shepard."

"Good observation, but we're not as strong as you, EDI. James, get out of there!"

The Lieutenant wasted no time; he dragged himself up and retreated toward the elevator to join the other men who were carefully picking targets to avoid hitting the ship's avatar as she danced around the warriors.

"What I wouldn't give for a Krogan right about now," James said exasperated.

The door to the shuttle slid open, revealing where Cortez had been hiding throughout the whole combat. The pilot commandeered the ship's heavy machine gun and let loose on the warriors before EDI jumped behind a wall to avoid the oncoming payload. It took longer compared to your standard shielded infantryman, but the gun's punch would not be denied and it began to down warriors one by one as Steve cut into the unit.

Meanwhile Tali and Garrus' 'tag and bag' combination appeared to be effective on the other end; the Quarian made a soft spot with her plasma shotgun and the Turian hit the mark with the widow sniper rifle. If the Necron didn't go down while Garrus was reloading Tali would simply shoot out another round from the Geth shotgun to finish the job.

However, the kills couldn't be done fast enough and the warriors being left alone took out the first threat to their unit. A few rounds of gauss fire went straight for Cortez, forcing the pilot to jump off the gun before it was put out of commission. Steve scrambled out through the back of the ship and joined Shepard with a heavy pistol in hand.

The other problem, the Commander took note of, was as soon as his fire team on the third deck took out a warrior another on the ground would be in the process of repairing itself and rising back to its feet. His team wasn't prepared for this kind of attrition, especially against an enemy that didn't seem to tire. Their weapons didn't appear to use ammunition of any kind as there were no clips being ejected, and this self repair ability was unlike anything he ever seen before. Even the Geth couldn't do it at this rate or with such efficiency to make the damage nonexistent. The worst part about it, Shepard concluded, was that only energy and anti Krogan weapons appeared to be the only thing that was effective at the moment.

It was when Javik returned to the fight with his Prothean rifle in hand that the Necrons too returned to their original target and began firing upon the third deck with total abandonment. The machines practically ignored the small arms fire from the shuttle bay as they knew it wouldn't harm them anymore than what the aliens above them could. Shepard regretted not simply ordering the ship back into the sky before the enemy climbed aboard.

EDI approached from the rear and attempted to lure the unit back into a melee to distract them until her comrades could come up with a new plan. Just as she was about to launch an attack, however, one of the Necrons turned around, as if anticipating her, and grabbed the android by the neck. Raising her to its eye level, EDI looked into the sinister green of the Necron's eye and, again, tried to establish some form of communication with it.

"Commander-"

The grip tightened and pinched EDI's neck, cutting her vocal capability, before the warrior completely crushed it as if she were made of tinfoil and tossed her aside like a broken doll. A few sparks jumped out of the cracked cervical as the android tried to get back up, but the warrior finished her off with two shots from his gauss flayer, rendering EDI motionless.

"EDI!" Shepard cried out.

"I'm fine, Commander," a voice on his omni-tool reassured, "I'm mostly in the ship, remember?"

A flash of green blinded Shepard momentarily as another crew member vanished in front of him. Things were getting worst by the second and for the first time since this Reaper spiral began, Shepard was unsure how to get out of this one short of possibly sacrificing some of his men to rid himself of these synthetics.

"Damnit, Joker, come in."

"Commander! EDI told me she just died down there, what the hell is going on?"

"No time, Joker, get us in the air and flush out these things."

"But, Commander, if I do that you could end up out there too."

"Joker, these things are about to breach the engine room, if they don't go we all do. Get us out of here now!"

Shepard could feel a sense of reluctance coming from his pilot before he got the 'aye aye' out of him.

"Everyone, grab hold of something, we're taking off!"

The squadmates on the engineering deck heard the core come to life as Joker started the ship. They made a dash to the stairwell and narrowly avoided gauss blasts that flew over their heads and flayed off bits of the door. As soon as Shepard saw the ground outside move away from them he looked for a railing to get a hold of as soon as he saw the intruders falling out.

"Shepard, what about EDI's body," Cortez pointed out. EDI's platform was too great an asset to lose now, especially on this hostile world. The Commander set about his omni-tool just as Joker was making the ship go vertical.

Gauss blasts flew every which way as the warriors began to lose their footing, a few in the back already stumbling and falling out of the hangar. EDI's body began to move as well, and Shepard summoned the holographic drone once more. The orange orb flew toward the android and activated a magnetic field, pulling the body toward a safe location while more warriors fell.

James and the other crewmates struggled to hold against the consoles as the ship went more vertical and equipment began to slide toward the gap. Crates crashed into the Necrons, pushing them off at last when it appeared like the warriors were going to hang on as well. When Shepard looked on at the last of the enemy, hanging on to the railing for dear life, he noticed that the warriors hitting the air space would vanish in a cloud, like they were never there to begin with.

"Joker, we're clear, level the ship."

A sigh of relief could be heard around the hangar as soon as the Normandy became horizontal once more, like kissing land after being so long at sea. Everyone took a minute to catch their breath and Shepard slumped to the ground.

"Close the hangar door, Joker."

"I can't do that, Commander, the door is wrecked, we're gonna have to stop for repairs."

"Put the field up then, we're not stopping until we figure out how the hell we got ambushed in the first place."

"Aye aye."

Liara approached her exhausted commander, her color paler than Shepard ever seen it in a long time, "Are you alright?"

"I'll tell you in a minute, I think I over-clocked my cybernetics. You don't look so great though."

"Yes, I'm sorry, I just-I don't know what happened. After all we been through you'd think I'd be calmer during an encounter like this, but it wasn't like anything we faced before. Just what the hell were those things?"

Shepard shook his head, "I don't know, but I figured this is what happened to the Alliance research team."

"I feel so childish, like when you rescued me from the Krogan Battle-Master. I just couldn't focus after seeing their weaponry reduce that man to nothingness, flaying pieces of him off. It was, Goddess, horrifying."

The Asari fell to her knees beside Shepard who hadn't seen her this way in a long time, not since their first meeting. It was a sign of what they were in for, for god's sake these things were swatting Reapers out of the sky, he thought.

"I need a roll call," Shepard said over his com-link.

"We're ok up here," Garrus answered.

"We lost a few men, but I can't find their bodies, you saw what happened to them," said James as he approached his Commander.

The destruction of the hangar was worse than before and completely unrecognizable, Joker would have a heart attack walking down there if he didn't break a leg first. The machines' weapons almost bored straight into the engine room as they tried to get at the rest of Shepard's squad, the wall being riddled with holes.

"This place is a real mess," said Garrus as he came back out to the walkway, "If that lasted any longer I don't know if we would have made it, Shepard. Damn near didn't have anywhere to duck behind cover anymore."

EDI's voice came over the intercom with urgency, "Shepard, I'm still detecting an unknown presence in your proximity."

Everyone became alert that very second and looked around the ruined hangar for a sign, a missed machine. James and Cortez searched behind some of the tossed supplies and signaled to Shepard that nothing lay on the ground, "Where exactly, EDI? We're not seeing anything."

When Tali got out of the stairwell to join her comrades, she could have sworn something had ducked out of the corner of her eye along the floor panels. The shotgun was raised on a second look and the Quarian was shouting for everyone to get down.

"The hell is going on up there?" cried Shepard as he twisted around, he turned just in time to catch Tali firing at what looked like a metallic cobra rising out of the ground, but her blasts went straight through the creature.

Garrus was flung to the side when the wraith's tail slammed into him, and the serpentine automaton lunged at Tali.

"No!" cried Ashley as she sprang forward and pushed the Quarian to the side. The metal blade went straight through the soldier without making an incision, and stopped her short before she could even pull the trigger. Blood erupted from her mouth, insides sliced to ribbons, and Ash slumped to the ground . Everything happened so fast that all those watching didn't even realize what had happened.

One second, Ashley took a blow for Tali, and the next the machine was paralyzing Garrus with a weapon and gathering him in its cold grasp before vanishing into thin air.

* * *

5 destroyer-class Reapers marched toward one of the orbital gun emplacements, at their feet an army of foot soldiers. The Necron pylons were lined with artillery and guarded by a battalion of warriors fresh from sleep. They were not intimidated by the long march, nor stirred in the face of the large, walking ships. No, they simply waited until the enemy got in range of their guns where they could release a fusillade and render the Reapers to nothing more than giant heaps that would turn into mounds in the sands.

However, even the Necron Lord leading the defense knew that the large Reaper machines contained enough firepower to render the installation to a smoking heap if given the opportunity to test their weapons at close range. Even as the artillery pieces fired upon them, it didn't help to slow their advance. The enemy knew that these guns were helping to keep the majority of their invading force up in space and if they failed in this attack it would make for a long, costly war.

Their purpose made them reckless, fueled further by their arrogance at not having realized that they faced their betters.

The lead destroyer primed its weapon and fired upon the warriors. A line of them were instantly phased out as the beam passed, serving to only make an irregularity in the formation which the warriors fixed by stepping into new places. The Necron Lord appeared disinterested in the loss of a few of his warriors and remained stationary at the head of his force.

As soon as the Reapers got close enough, he projected an order to a squadron of doom scythes hiding in the sky above. Like a sickle they came, slicing through the air and sands as they approached the head of the attackers. They unleashed volleys of eldritch lightning from their tesla destructors, hitting the broadside of the lead Reaper. The energy cackled as it bounced all around great machine and latched itself to some of its nearby foot soldiers, frying them instantly. Those that weren't killed by the tesla attacks instead shot each other as the whine of the fighter's engine drove their half organic minds mad, its sound reverberating deep into the psyche of the hapless creatures.

It was when the squadron got right up to their target that they showed their true power as the scythe of the Necron forces.

Their death rays sent down beams of blinding white hot energy that vaporized all those it passed over. As the Necron flyers soared across the Reaper, their beams carved into the outer shell and sliced their legs clean off, making it topple over. The warriors, on command, aimed their weapons at the fallen Reaper and flayed it with their gauss weapons until the ship exploded, at which point they focused their attention on the foot soldiers that were still in chaos over the sound of doom scythe's engine.

Seeing the power they were capable of, the other destroyers turned to face the returning doom scythes as they peered down their next kill. Beams of red energy pierced the sky as they tried to take down the squadron, but their sleek and agile targets made it difficult. For every missed shot it seemed to make it easier for the fighters to predict a trajectory and dodge accordingly. Thus, the doom scythes came again to take another destroyer, carving it like fowl on a dinner table.

With their engines yet again causing the infantry to lose their minds and either fall down to claw at their skulls or shoot each other, the Necron Lord marched his army forward to attack.

This was the weakness of cybernetic beings. True power and eternity didn't come from flesh, but from machine. To leave a sliver of flesh in your design is to invite nature to take its due. How the battle was going proved this all the more for Treckis as he watched from deep within the catacombs of the tomb. Now that the royal court had awakened, there was not much more for the Cryptek to do until he was called upon. He preferred the sanctuary of his lab as opposed to the field, though the mechromancer wouldn't miss an opportunity to test a new weapon.

Garrus began to stir on the metallic slab, his vision blurred as he tried to gain focus. The first things he noticed were the shallow whines of machinery from a distance and the flickering energies dancing inside transparent tubes that ran along the ceiling. Looking to his side he could see a table with strange tools he couldn't identify and something he could only guess to be a console of sorts as a holo-screen hovered above it, but the display only had iconography he couldn't read.

"Where am I?" he finally asked.

It was then that he noticed, as he looked down the edge of his slab, that a Reaper Marauder was held in stasis inside a tank. Invisible restraints kept him in check as he tried to get up, and something pulled him back down to the table.

He stopped when footsteps could be heard outside and Garrus looked intently to see who it was that had captured him. The Turian couldn't remember anything other than the attack on the ship; everything afterward was a blur.

Treckis walked into the room, staff in hand and robes following behind. He paid no mind to Garrus as he walked to the console and reviewed some data, his expression blank.

"Who the hell are you, and where am I? No, wait, you're one of them aren't you," Garrus noted as he recognized the Cryptek's shape. It was near exactly like the things that attacked him and the rest of Shepard's crew.

"How the hell did you bring me here? Where's my team?"

Though Garrus couldn't see it, Treckis was busy processing the Turian tongue as he looked over his data and soon surprised his guest by speaking it in response.

"The design is poor, I'm going to improve upon it."

The voice was hollow, dark, and echoed in a foreboding manner. Yet, there was a hint of something contradictory, a certain excitement that was difficult to pick up within the context of everything else.

Garrus had no idea what his captor was talking about and tried to reach for the pistol he was sure was still strapped to his back, however his restraints grew tighter to the point where he couldn't move his wrist even an inch as he struggled.

"Who are you?"

The Cryptek finally turned around to leer over his subject, "Unimportant, soon you will release your flesh and join a higher order," he walked over to marauder that hung inside the tank like a trophy, "I will improve upon this design, and you will be the envy of your people. They will see your splendor and awe at what they could have achieved."

It didn't take long for Garrus to put the pieces together, "You're not turning me into a Reaper. I'll be damned first!"

Treckis disabled the atmospheric field in the room and watched as Garrus began to choke and gasp for air. While the Turian tried to mouth gulps of fleeting oxygen, the Cryptek hovered over him with an energy blade in hand and started on the first incision. Though you couldn't tell by his face, Treckis was happy (as far as a Necron could fake the emotion) that his long paused work was about to resume at the start of a new harvest. The Pariah program had begun.


End file.
